Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine


Rowan looks back at her life and realizes how great it was. Mum was happy, Dad was home, Jack glued the family together, and Stroma, her little sister, was...well, just Stroma. But that all changed when Jack died.

Rowan looks at her life now and realizes how impossibly hard it's getting. Mum doesn't talk, eat or even recognize she has other children. Dad moved about a few months ago, Jack...well, he's dead and Rowan can't think about that because now she has to care for her six-year old precocious little sister Stroma in everything.

But one day, that all changes when a stranger with a lop-sided grin gives her a negative that he believes belongs to her. And that one act of kindess begins a chain reaction of lives intersecting, all through chance, and how one lost life impacts so many.

Rowan looks at her days and doesn't see breakfast, a beautiful concoction of lovely flowers, hot toast, oatmeal, and orange juice in a clean glass cup, but rather she sees everything floating together, mashed up, messed up, mixed up...broken soup...

What a great read!! Valentine's characters float off the pages and into your heart. Bee, Sonny, Carl; Stroma, Harper and Rowan; even Jack are enormously full characters that will grab at your heart strings and have you hoping against hope for good things to happen. This is a fast read but one that will continue to shape characters into their true selves to the very end. Highly recommended.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree. I read it about a month ago. It was a surprising little book. I never expected the outcome.

Paige Y. said...

Oh my gosh -- that sounds wonderful -- I will put it on my to-read list right now.

Naomi said...

This was hands down, one of my favorites!